


His Welfare is my Concern

by JadeLotus (Lotusflower85)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-06 23:37:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3152549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lotusflower85/pseuds/JadeLotus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Han Solo tries to leave the Rebellion, but can't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Welfare is my Concern

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The title is from the Hollies song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother."

Han Solo stalked across the flight deck of the  _Home One_ , begrudgingly admitting to himself that the Mon Calamari sure knew how to build a cruiser. The sleek, elegant curves of the  _Home One_  showed off the aquatic heritage of her architects, and although Han appreciated the style, it was not to his tastes. He much preferred the sharp angles and modular design of the  _Millenium Falcon_ , but objectively he could appreciate the cruiser’s streamlined design without feeling as if he was being unfaithful to the old girl. Still, he consoled himself that the name showed a stark lack of creativity.   
 ****  
The bay of the _Home One_ was full of X-Wings, both those squadrons belonging to the cruiser, and those which had been able to slip through the Imperial blockade around Yavin. It had been three weeks since the destruction of the Death Star, and only two weeks since Imperial Star Destroyers had boxed the Rebels into the system. Only the few fighters which had survived the initial assault and Han’s own ship had been able to slip through the Imperial net in order to rendezvous with a small portion of the Alliance fleet led by Gial Ackbar.   
 ****  
Now he had to find the kid and say goodbye. In Han’s opinion he’d gone over and above the call of duty in helping the Rebels start their evacuation Yavin 4. He’d accompanied Luke and the rest of the snub fighters here, hadn’t he? He could safely leave the rest of the evacuation to Alliance High Command - Ackbar seemed to know what he was doing, and Han was unmoved by the not-so-subtle hints that he should stay. He still had a bounty to pay off after all.  
 ****  
Besides, if he didn’t leave soon, Luke would get himself into trouble again and Han would spend the rest of his life following the kid around averting disaster. He wasn’t the kind of man to chase around strays or play protector to lost souls. Although, Han reflected, that was in essence the role Chewbacca played in his own life.  
 ****  
But that was irrelevant, and Han quickly dismissed the thought as soon as it had come. He’d saved Chewie’s life once. Luke Skywalker had done nothing for Han except promise him an easy, well-paid charter and instead had almost gotten him blown up, shot, crushed and shot again with no prize to show for it.  
 ****  
He’d given the reward back to the Alliance. Chewie had insisted on it, pointing out that the Rebels needed to funds more than ever since losing almost all of their Yavin-based snub fighters and qualified pilots. Han had pointed out that _they_  needed the funds to pay off Jabba, and so Chewie had proposed that they keep only what they needed to achieve that task, and forfeit the rest. That had been in the drunken, glorious haze following the medal ceremony, and Han had regretted agreeing to it ever since. Although, the grateful look the princess had given him - the one she’d tried to hide behind cool indifference - had almost made it worth it. Almost.   
 ****  
He finally found Luke tending to his X-Wing on the far side of the hanger. Although wearing a flightsuit and diligently working on a tangle of circuits protruding from an access panel with the skillful application of a hydrospanner, Luke still had the appearance of a boy playing dress-up in his father’s clothes.  
 ****  
“Hey, kid,” Han said as he approached, leaning on the ship’s hull beside where Luke was working.  
 ****  
“Hey, Han.” A smile spread across Luke’s boyish features that made him look younger than his nineteen years. He was pale, and Han noticed that his forearms, visible from where the sleeves of the flightsuit were pushed up to his elbows, were pimpled with gooseflesh.  
 ****  
“You cold?” Han asked.  
 ****  
“A little,” Luke shrugged. “Although I’m glad to be off Yavin.”  
 ****  
Han patted Luke’s shoulder in understanding. The jungle planet had been hot and humid, and Han couldn’t imagine how much of a shock to the system it had been for Luke. The kid had been raised in a desert after all, where any moisture in the air or ground had been sucked dry before it could manifest. Sticky, steamy Yavin must have seemed like the seventh Corellian hell for the poor boy.  
 ****  
“Missing Tatooine, are you?” Han found himself asking. “You’d be the first person in history.”  
 ****  
Luke laughed and closed the access panel before pivoting on one foot to lean against the hull of the ship next to Han. “You know, when I was there, all I wanted to be was out here - on a ship, among the stars,” he looked around the docking bay and smiled sadly. “And it’s great. But now that I’m here...all I can think of is home. Except home isn’t there anymore.”  
 ****  
Han nodded in sympathy; the old man Kenobi had pulled him aside not long after they’d fled into hyperspace from Tatooine. He’d asked Han to go easy on Luke, explaining what the Empire had done to his home and guardians. Han had of course dismissed his words and chided Kenobi for his sentimentality. The galaxy was full of tragedy, and it wasn’t his job to tip-toe around sensitive beings - he’d been pretty much alone his whole life and didn’t expect sympathy or special consideration from anyone. Kenobi had simply sighed and looked at Han with pity.  
 ****  
“You miss your aunt and uncle, huh?” Han asked Luke, because now he understood Kenobi’s protectiveness of the kid. And as much as Han hated to admit it to himself, he had inherited it.  
 ****  
“Yeah,” Luke said wistfully, leaning his head back against the ship’s hull. “They were good people - I mean, I wasn’t even their blood relative, but they still took me in. My Aunt Beru used to say that someday I’d make my way out in the stars, and she’d do anything she could to help me get there, if that’s what I wanted - even though my Uncle wanted me to take over the moisture farm. She risked trouble in her marriage and was willing to sacrifice security in her later years so I would be happy.” Luke sighed wistfully. “I never had a mother, but Beru….” Luke trailed off and swallowed heavily as he visibly forced back tears. “Did you ever have anyone like that?” he asked as he turned to Han, almost in a plea for solidarity.  
 ****  
Long buried memories came unbidden to the surface of Han’s mind; the old Wookiee Dewlanna who’d looked out for him from the age of nine when he’d first been taken into the service of Garris Shrike. Han forced back the memory of her lying in his arms as she bled out from the blaster wound in her chest; the injury she’d sustained saving his life. With her dying breath, she’d made Han promise to live and be happy. He’d been Luke’s age when it had happened, so he knew how it felt to lose the only person in the galaxy who gave a kriff about you. He could tell Luke about her; could share that memory with the boy desperate to hear it, but it was a wound poorly healed, and one Han feared re-opening. Because then he would have to admit that although he had kept the first part of his promise, the second part still eluded him.  
 ****  
So instead, he laughed and shook his head. “Nah.”  
 ****  
Luke looked at him for only a fraction of a second, and then turned his head away. Han was certain that if he’d said the same thing to the princess, she would have seen though his lie easily, and pressed him about it. But if Luke suspected falsehood, he did not show it. Perhaps it was that farmboy naievete he carried about himself, that willingness to trust and take everything at face value.  
 ****  
Or perhaps Luke had noticed, and was simply being kind.  
 ****  
“So you’re off then?” Luke asked, keeping his gaze focused straight ahead.  
 ****  
“Yeah,” Han said softly. “I gotta pay off Jabba, you know that.” Luke pursed his lips, his gaze unwavering from that fixed spot in the distance.  
 ****  
“Look, I gave most of it back, what more do you want from me?” Han asked, slightly increased at Luke’s reaction. Even though he hadn’t said a word, Luke’s disappointment and contempt radiated from every pore. “All I kept was enough to give to Jabba - not a credit of it is going in my pocket. Not one! Fine thanks for saving a princess as well as your sorry butt, kid.”  
 ****  
Luke’s chin tilted, and although his face didn’t move a muscle Han could almost hear what he was thinking.  
 ****  
“Yeah, I know,” Han continued, preemptively cutting off the argument with a wave of his hand. He pushed himself off the hull of the ship and started to pace. “You saved the princess too, and blew up the godsdamn Death Star to boot, and all you got was a shiny medal and some new friends. Oh, and indentured servitude to this rag-tag group of Rebels, but you volunteered for that, didn’t you?” Han laughed in dry disbelief and ran a hand through his hair. “But I ain’t you, kid - I know when to cut and run, and if you had any sense you’d do the same.”  
 ****  
Luke looked at him passively, waiting for Han to finish his rant. Silence fell between them, and somehow Han felt as if _he_  was the child throwing a tantrum demanding why he should go; a mirror of their previous discussions when Luke had tried to convince him to stay. But it seemed the kid had finished arguing, and instead looked down at his boots and sighed quietly.   
 ****  
“Look, you do what you want, Han,” Luke said and gave a shrug of his shoulders. “But do you know what Jabba will do with those credits?”  
 ****  
Han sighed and rubbed the side of his face absently. “Yeah.” He had no illusions about the Hutts, but if it was the choice between getting paid and living another day, or starving with only the moral high ground for comfort, he’d pick the former every time.  
 ****  
“I’m not making a donation to the Hutt cause, Luke,” Han said somewhat irritably. “I dropped a shipment and Jabba lost money - they were his credits to begin with. I’m just making things square and saving my own life in the process”  
 ****  
“And that makes it alright then?” Luke looked up again, and his soft blue eyes had turned steely. “Look, it’s not just that you’re taking the creds from the Alliance - who as you know desperately need them for supplies, equipment and intelligence. It’s that you’re giving them to Jabba the Hutt, who will spend them on slaves to serve at his every whim, bounty hunters to eliminate rivals and enforcers to raze the homesteads of farmers just trying to survive.” Luke sighed again and turned back to face his X-Wing, resuming his work on the machinery. “I know you think it’s not your responsibility, but it is,” he said firmly, keeping his eyes on the hydrospanner as he worked. “When you choose to give those credits to Jabba, knowing how he will use them, you can’t detach yourself from it anymore. You become part of it.”  
 ****  
“And what’s the alternative?” Han asked tiredly. “Wait, don’t tell me. Join the Rebellion.”  
 ****  
Luke smiled as he unscrewed a fastener with his hydrospanner. “At least you’ll be fighting for something worthwhile.”  
 ****  
“And how much fighting will I get done once Jabba puts a bounty on me?” Han asked. “I can’t do anything for your revolution if I’m dead.”  
 ****  
“No,” Luke said quietly. “But the Empire’s already after us, what’s a bounty compared to that?” he asked, and threw Han a wry smile. “We probably already have Imperial bounties, anyway, or will soon once they figure out it was us who destroyed their Death Star.”  
 ****  
“When they figure out _you_ destroyed it, you mean.”  
 ****  
“Couldn’t have done it without you, Han,” Luke said, stopping his work and turning to him again. “As you’ve been so fond of pointing out. You’re already a Rebel in the Emperor’s eyes.”  
 ****  
“Oh, great,” Han said sarcastically. “Two bounties for the price of one.” Then he sighed and ran a hand through his hair again. He couldn’t believe he’d let the damn kid get to him. Again. Neither could he shake the feeling of responsibility for Luke, that niggling voice in the back of his mind that said the only way the kid was going to survive was if Han was around to watch his back. At least until Luke found his feet and developed some much required survival instincts.  
  
“Alright, alright ” Han added with resignation. “I’ll stick around - but just a few weeks more,” he added firmly, poking Luke lightly in the chest with one finger. “Then I’m out of here.”


End file.
